China targets Corolla and Mazda3

Chinese car brands will begin their challenge to Australia's best-selling small cars in 2012 with two new models from its first two entrants, Chery and Great Wall Motors.

The Chery A3 and GWM Voleex C50 are both set to enter the country's most popular vehicle segment, according to the importer behind the brands, Ateco Automotive.

The A3 will become Chery's third passenger car in Australia and be renamed J3 - to avoid upsetting Audi - when it joins the recently launched J1 light car and J11 compact SUV.

Chery's small car is available in both sedan and hatchback body styles, with the latter close in size to Volkswagen's Golf. Both are powered by a 1.6-litre dual variable valve timing engine with 93kW and 160Nm, teamed to a CVT auto.

Great Wall's C50, which adopts the Voleex sub-brand used for the company's sedans and passenger cars, will be its first car-based vehicle locally, lining up in showrooms alongside the V240 ute and ute-based X240 SUV.

Great Wall Motors Australia's general manager, Peter McGeown, told Drive at the 2011 Shanghai motor show that it was a logical next step as it looks to build the brand in Australia.

"The C50 is Corolla, [Holden] Cruze size," he says. "It means we're entering a tough segment [but] it's a very important segment."

The C50 sedan (above) will be one of the longer small cars, however, with a length of 4650mm - 70mm longer than a Mazda3 sedan. Engine choices comprise two 1.5-litre four-cylinders - in 78kW/138Nm normally aspirated and 98kW/188Nm configurations.

McGeown said the "first cab off the rank" for GWM cars coming to Australia would be the C10 (below), a city car that would compete with the likes of the Toyota Yaris, Mazda2 and Ford Fiesta.

The C10 measures 3.8 metres long and is available in China with a choice of 66kW 1.3- or 77kW 1.5-litre engines, mated to either a manual or CVT auto.

The C20R, a crossover-style city car that bears an uncanny resemblance to Suzuki's SX4 (see below), is also being considered for Australia.

Great Wall sold 6690 vehicles in 2010 but McGeown says the brand is forecasting a five-figure number for this year.

"Looking at [2011] we're seeing about 10,000 sales," he says. "But it depends on timing of diesel engines for our V-series [ute] and diesel version of the X240, the X200.

"The diesel variants will lift sales enormously."

Great Wall Motors also unveiled its new Haval (its brand for SUVs) H6 (above) at the Shanghai show, a model that is the next-generation of the XV40 SUV currently on sale in Australia.